‘Black Jail’ Plea from Hospital

A man who tried to lodge a complaint against official corruption in his hometown in the central Chinese province of Hubei was detained in one of a growing number of “black jails” or unofficial detention centers and severely beaten, he said from his hospital bed.

Guo Dajing, of Yunxi county, was detained and dragged back to his hometown by police, local officials, and hired thugs while he was in Beijing to file a complaint in September. He was taken to the detention center where he was beaten up, and then later transferred to a local hospital.

“Right now I have been taken once more to the hospital by them. There were more than a dozen people guarding me before. Now there are two,” he said from Yunxi County Hospital.